SSD Defragmentation and Windows 8 Optimize Tool

A solid state drive does not need defragmentation, that’s a fact. To make the story very simple, think about memory sticks/USB thumb drives – did you ever defragment one? Bingo! Sure, some tools like Raxco’s Perfect Disk claim to be optimized for SSDs and, from a certain point of view, they do what they say, but should you really bother with such a tool?

My personal advice is to keep your money and save for more memory or even a new SSD. After all, the Windows 8 Optimize tool does about the same thing – when it detects that you are trying to defrag a volume that’s mounted on a solid state drive, a full TRIM command is ordered, enabling the drive to increase its performance using internal algorithms.

To run an Optimize command on your SSD, there are only a few steps to follow – right click the SSD volume in your file manager, choose Properties, then go to the Tools tab and, finally, just click Optimize. Pretty easy, huh?

These being said, here are a few hints if you are looking to save money while using a solid state drive:1. NEVER buy so-called “SSD optimization tools” because there are also free ones that do the job well. After all, there’s not much to optimize. Better buy a second SSD for a RAID setup…2. ALWAYS keep a fresh backup of your SSD at hand. Creating such a drive image can be done really fast and it may spare you a lot of trouble one fine day. Obviously, there are plenty of free tools to do this.3. If you are an average Joe/Jane using a computer, don’t bother to buy any kind of Windows optimization tools – there are a bunch of free ones and even a Windows full of junk files will run great when installed on a SSD.

Now, about the free tools to use for the purposes mentioned above… they’re coming soon, keep your eyes on PCTips3000 and you’ll get info on them & more sooner than expected. That’s all for now, folks! 😉

About The Author

I wrote about various IT subjects here and there, but I always wanted to improve my skills while doing it, so that's why I am still crazy about technology, Internet, freebies, and writing about them (in random order) at 33 years old. PCTips3000 is now my main playground, I love what I do here and I really hope you'll love it too...